I adore cooking and look forward to the summer season to make a few favorites with our tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. We grew both sauce tomatoes and sandwich tomatoes as well as grape and yellow cherry tomatoes called Sungolds. I always make gazpacho with the first tomatoes served with shrimp and homemade croutons. Gazpacho recipe here.

The Sungolds and grape tomatoes are great roasted and then used as a compote. With eggs or added to a sauce, the sweetness becomes richer with the roasting.

Something that I’ve come to really enjoy is eggs poached in tomatoes. My neighbor Chef Steve served Diablo eggs at his brunch, eggs cooked in ramakins of tomato sauce and I was hooked. Homemade tomato sauce is even better.

We grill out as much as I can. I love veggie skewers and tandoori chicken thighs. I used to make a fruit salsa all the time to serve with the meats. And then this Summer I was turned onto Tzatsiki sauce made from cucumber, greek yogurt, sour cream, garlic, dill, and a little vinegar, salt, and pepper. New favorite!

I’ve always loved Seafood and two of my favorites, mussels and oysters, I enjoyed for lunch with a friend in St. Michaels earlier this Summer. Looking forward to our annual birthday crab feast in less than two weeks.

Mark and are currently surrendering flour and sugar so I’ll not be making my favorite buttermilk biscuits for a while. But I will indulge in a slice of pumpernickel especially with avocado smashed onto it on occasion. And butternut squash makes a great hash with turkey kielbasa and garlic ramps. Hope you are inspired to eat some rainbow or try out a new dish. As I always say to the kids, “You never know, it could be your new favorite”. See a similar post and all of those yummy pictures in my post titled Food Porn from 2016.

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I was first introduced to Tunisian Stew, aka Seven Vegetable Stew, when a friend hosting an annual dinner party served it. I was dubious about the meatless stew but was surprised at the substantial texture and the exotic and Middle Eastern flavors including Tumeric and Cinnamon. This vegetable stew is a good go-to when I’ve got my vegetarian family members coming over as it boasts lots of flavor as the fennel and raisins are a sweet component.

Although I feel the addition of the feta and toasted almonds on top are necessary for salty bite and the crunchy texture, vegans may need to find a vegan feta option. The suggestion is to also serve this over couscous. Although a whole wheat couscous can be found at Trader Joe’s, I think rice would be just as nice if you want to go gluten free.

And for meat eating fans, if you want to serve a few slices of a pork or beef roast with it, I’ve done that too.

Tunisian Stewaka Seven Vegetable Stew

To be Served with Whole Wheat couscous, sliced toasted almonds, and feta

– Halve and seed and wedge the butternut squash. Add into pot :(parsley) chickpeas, tear the tomatoes, cauliflower and the carrots, stirring and simmering another 15 minutes and then add zucchini squash in thelast 5 minutes as it will cook to mush fast.

– Remove cinnamon sticks and parsley if used and serve over couscous withalmonds and feta.

Expect to have a lots leftover so this stew makes a great option for a supper with a lot of guests. And it lasts for a while in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your email box. And visit me on Instagramto see my daily pictures, friend meor like my pageon Facebook. Or come find me on Twitteror Pinteresttoo. I am always practicing Intentional In-touchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

I realize that you may or may not know how much I love to cook. I do take pictures sometimes of what I make but I even more seldomly am posting them. I don’t know why. Well maybe it’s because there’s a lot that goes into being a food blogger. Except who doesn’t like oggling the pictures. And we all need some inspiration to be in the mood for food to make. So I’ve decided to give you a food porn picture-athon for today only. Enjoy!

Cooking peppers and onions and freezing the garden poblanos that grew like gangbusters.

Gluten free pizza has the best texture but sadly tastes like nothing.

Two years in a row I’ve celebrated my birthday with crabs. This years bushel did not disappoint. Sweet and fat and too many were left over. Accompanied by Maryland Silver Queen sweet corn and more slices of homegrown tomatoes with mozzarella and basil and our meal is complete.

I was raised on Midwestern breakfasts. Biscuits, sausage, and gravy. And poached eggs not pictured.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter orPinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

There is definitely something satisfying about having my cupboard stocked. As much as I wanted to complain about grocery shopping in this post, I have a sense of bounty when it’s full. Our cupboard is an old metal cabinet inherited from Grandmom that is more like a pantry. I removed my upper cabinets in the kitchen and this is what we use now instead. And to have it stocked means that I can throw together quick-breads or a pasta dish or a soup based on what’s in there and the fridge. I can be lazy or I can make effort but it’s there for the cooking. Some of the meals I have given recipes for that I think of as cupboard meals are my Cannellini bean and Tuna salad and the Warm Salad.

On the random day that I inventoried my cupboard just to see what I had, it contained the following ingredients:

The fridge and freezer are stocked by mood and sale items. Currently there’s shrimp, pork butt, pork chops, chicken breasts, ribs, flat-iron steak, and various frozen veggies as well as chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and ice cream in the freezer.

I do find that too much choice can be a bad thing so I feel much much better when I write out suggestive menu plans for the week. That way I can get “in the mood” for some meals. And I can switch around meals depending on the amount of effort I feel like making . Although it almost seems hard to make that meal plan out sometimes, I’m always happy when I do.

I also didn’t realize that I cook breakfast 5 days out of 7. I don’t often just let everyone eat cereal or yogurt. So we eat eggs or leftover pancakes or oatmeal more often than not. And leftovers can be bundled into a burrito later. I try to be frugal and mindful of making what I have bought. My kids hopefully will eventually appreciate this. Or not.

Tip number 7 of the 10 Smart tips for eating healthier on a budgetfrom the Kitchen.com is to keep a well-organized fridge and pantry. Shopping for fresh produce at the end of the farmer’s market, sale meats, whole grains, planning and eating outside your box/comfort zone are all on the list. Wonder how well you’re doing ? Read the article and find out.

And If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter orPinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

There was once a time when I cooked for the joy of it. I dared to try different techniques, different regional tastes, or daring feats of culinary craziness. I deboned a turkey for Thanksgiving just to say I did it. I make a mean tiramisu when I take the time to. That went with my Italian Christmas feast I made one year with homemade pasta and reinforcement salad. And now I am in mourning for the cook I used to be.

I soooooo miss those days when the pursuit of culinary loveliness was just for self-gratification. And for the gratification of the ones I love of course. What wine pairs with my culinary feat du jour and who am I inviting over to impress? Do we have enough wine? Who cares the time.

Those days are gone Daddy gone. I became a Mom and Eamon and Fiona are happy to be eating some boxed mac and cheese and a microwaved hot dog. Don’t forget the ketchup. And the ice cream.

When I indulged these thoughts, I felt suddenly as if I were mourning this memory. I love cooking to cook. And I resent cooking plebeian meals for temperamental palettes. But my wise and dear husband pointed out, after I shared my depressing revelation of cooking sentence, that he thinks eventually those same children will develop their taste buds and sense of adventure and they’ll be cooking with me and eventually for me.

I dearly hope his prediction is correct. I won’t hold my breath. But my love of cooking came from my parents, yes, although I also was an adventurous eater. I find it very hard to put so many parts of my soul on hold for the sake of the children. And yet, my complaints are rare because I do understand that this is one of many sacrifices one makes for your children. Like the reading of a book or peeing in private. And that to wish the hurrying through of this phase is to wish to hurry their childhood. And I’m not about to do that.

Sandra Lee had a pretty keen idea of mixing the downtown and the uptown cooking and I commend her for her efforts to create fancier meals with less prep and throw in a decorative element to make the dining experience an event. Children can learn to revere the meal times and eventually the food that is there on their plates. And it’s time I revisit the review I did of French Kids Eat Everything by Karen La Billon. It was really good.

So here’s me dreaming of truffles and oysters and sabayon. And planning a dinner party sometime soon so that I can get some culinary yaya’s out.

If you enjoyed what you read, subscribe, via the subscription box in the sidebar, to my thrice weekly posts via your emailbox. And visit me on Instagram to see my daily pictures, friend me or like my page on Facebook. Or come find me on Twitter or Pinterest too. I am always practicing Intentional Intouchness so chat at me please. I live for conversations.

My name is Shalagh Hogan, pronounced Shay-La. I'm the mother of a teen, a six year-old, and I turned 52 this year. This blog was born in 2011 and my hope and joy as a writer, an artist, and an uber-creative, is that by sharing my journey of self-discovery, others will gain inspiration and permission for their own journeys.

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